The Proxmox team has taken another big step forward with the release of Proxmox Datacenter Manager (PDM) 0.9 Beta. This new platform aims to become the central management layer for organizations running multiple Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) nodes and clusters. With the beta release, PDM is moving from proof-of-concept into a practical, powerful tool that can simplify operations for administrators at scale.

What is Proxmox Datacenter Manager?

Proxmox Datacenter Manager is designed as a single pane of glass for managing diverse Proxmox environments. Instead of jumping between cluster interfaces, admins can now monitor and perform basic operations across many nodes and clusters in one place.

PDM doesn’t replace the Proxmox VE interface—it complements it. For advanced configuration, you’ll still dive into the VE UI, but PDM gives you high-level visibility, cross-cluster management, and orchestration features that were previously missing.

The Road to Beta

The first alpha release appeared in late 2024, offering basic multi-cluster visibility, resource metrics, simple VM operations, and even early support for remote migration. From the beginning, the Proxmox team positioned PDM as a future cornerstone of their ecosystem, with a stable 1.0 release planned for 2025.

The 0.9 Beta brings major improvements in usability, networking, and control, signaling that PDM is getting ready for wider adoption.

What’s New in PDM 0.9 Beta

The beta release isn’t just a bug-fix update—it introduces several important features and refinements:

• Modern base system: Built on Debian Trixie with the latest kernel and ZFS versions, ensuring compatibility with new hardware and storage options.
• EVPN and SDN support: Administrators can now configure EVPN zones and virtual networks across multiple clusters from a central interface. This makes multi-site networking far easier and less error-prone.
• Advanced search and filtering: A powerful query system lets you quickly find specific VMs, containers, or nodes across all remotes, even in very large deployments.
• Improved metrics collection: Dashboards now update faster and scale better, thanks to more efficient concurrent data gathering.
• Integrated access control: User and privilege management can now be handled directly in PDM, making it easier to delegate responsibilities in larger teams.
• UI polish: Graphs, time-frame selectors, remote setup wizards, and task summaries have all been refined to make day-to-day work smoother.

Current Limitations

Like any beta release, PDM 0.9 still has areas that need work:

• No built-in high availability yet, making the PDM server a potential single point of failure.
• Some features—like health overviews, bulk operations, and notification systems—are still incomplete.
• Remote setup still requires careful handling of certificates and network trust, which may challenge new users.
• API changes between alpha and beta may break earlier integrations.

Who Should Try It?

Great candidates for the beta:

• Organizations running multiple Proxmox clusters who need central visibility.
• Homelab enthusiasts eager to experiment with cutting-edge features.
• Teams looking to test cross-cluster networking or migrations.

Better to wait if:

• Your environment demands high availability for all components.
• You rely on advanced workflows like automated backups or firewalling, which are still limited in PDM.

Real-World Benefits

For those ready to try it, PDM 0.9 offers some exciting new workflows:

• Unified monitoring: Keep track of metrics, updates, and cluster health from one dashboard.
• Cross-cluster migration: Move workloads between clusters without complex networking hacks.
• Simplified SDN management: Configure EVPNs across multiple sites in a fraction of the time.
• Team delegation: Assign different access levels to administrators directly in the PDM interface.
• Faster troubleshooting: Use advanced filters to locate specific VMs or nodes instantly.

What’s Next

The roadmap for PDM includes richer health dashboards, resource pooling, bulk actions, better trust management for remotes, and alerting systems. The long-term vision is to turn PDM into a fully featured orchestration layer, bridging the gap between individual Proxmox clusters and large-scale datacenter operations.

Final Thoughts

The release of Proxmox Datacenter Manager 0.9 Beta is an exciting milestone. It demonstrates that Proxmox is serious about giving administrators a scalable, centralized management layer. While it’s not production-ready for mission-critical deployments, the progress is clear: better networking, more robust dashboards, and integrated access control make this beta far more than a test build.

For anyone managing multiple Proxmox environments, now is the perfect time to install PDM in a test lab, explore its features, and prepare for what promises to be one of the most important additions to the Proxmox ecosystem in years.